Before you consider a consolidation loan to repay your debts read how I saved thousands of pounds. The information here is completely free and could help you do the same. This is my personal story and is 100% genuine,

Consolidation Loans::

I saved thousands of pounds getting a consolidation debt loan here in the UK to repay my debts of about 15 thousands pounds. The technique is remarkably simple, if it could work for me I don't see why it can't work for you. I advise you read the whole page about how I got into debt, how things went wrong and about how with a consolidation debt loan & a short settlement offer I saved thousands. Basically I got all of my creditors to accept a final single payment of far less than the full amount, then I took out a consolidation debt loan for that greatly reduced amount.
I owed 15 Thousand pounds and wrote of the debt with a consolidation loan of 5 thousand pounds. One consolidation loan saved me nearly 10 thousand pounds!!

My fear when I see adverts on the TV for Consolidation Loans: in the UK often hold your home against the loan have a much higher than normal interest rate, or leave you in debt for many years. The only way I can see a consolidation debt loan being worth while is if you borrow less than your total debt, get short settlement on your other debts and use the consolidation loan to actually reduce your total debt.

My Debt Situation:

Getting into debt is very simple (as we both know) getting out of debt is not nearly so easy, before I tell you how I started getting out of debt and taking back control of my life, with the help of a consolidation loan here in the UK. I want to detail how I got out of control with my debts.

I had a decent job here in the UK (my first real job after graduation) I was earning 20 thousand pounds a year, I had three thousand pounds of student loan, which I was repaying and an overdraft on my current account of £1500 pounds. I moved into a new house so I borrowed 2 thousand pounds for carpets and furniture. Within the year I had 3 credit cards and 1 store card. My debt was not out of control at this point, or so I thought, but please note I had loan repayment protection on all my credit cards and loans!

Two years later I had hardly paid my student loan or graduate loan off, my credit card debt was increasing and every month I was dipping further and further into my overdraft. Looking back now only making the minimum payments on credit cards and taking out their payment protection insurance was a massive massive mistake on my part.

Looking back I should of taken more drastic action when my level of debt approached half of my annual salary, a consolidation loan may have helped then! Now if I ever take out credit again I plan to have no more than 1 quarter of my annual income lost to debt and make sure I make more than the minimum payments.

My Job became a nightmare, I was faced with a situation where I knew my face did not fit with management and it was only a matter of time before I was "made redundant" I had seen it happen to my colleagues. Very foolishly I resigned, I thought better to go before I was pushed. This was a massive mistake as all the debt insurance I had taken out was invalid I got no help from my creditors at all. ( I'd never even heard of consolidation loans at this point )

Within 6 months I failed to find a job paying me a wage capable of allowing me to live and make the minimum payments on my debt. I was using on credit card to pay another. This bit is important I wrote recorded delivery letters to all my creditors explaining my full financial situation.

In another 6 months I had lost my home and my debts were getting larger, what was worse I was getting late payment fines on my debts which mean 't that in the end they increased by over a third. I was drowning in debt literally.

I had found work and was earning just enough to get buy, again I wrote to all my creditors, explaining in detail my complete financial situation. This may be very familiar to some of you I got very little help and in fact was harassed almost daily even at work for more money from the debt collectors the credit card companies had sold my debts to.

These debt companies tried many times to threaten me with court action, which I finally realised was an idle threat as that would cost them money and I was incapable of paying more than I was already offering. I had delivered those offers in writing its very important you do this, telephone conversations are a waste of time in my opinion.

Finally I made of short settlement payment to write of these debts. Again I made a detailed inventory of my assets (none I'd lost my home) all the money I had coming in each month and a list of fair outgoings, clothing, travel expenses, food, laundry etc. I listed all my debts, who they were to, and the exact amounts. The letter was the same to all my creditors, it stated that I could borrow £5000 pounds and not a penny more, I shared that money between all my creditors depending on the size of my debt to them. I stated that that was a final offer and was not open to negotiation, I also said that if they did not accept my offer I would begin voluntary bankruptcy proceedings. Put simply short settlement offer, consolidation debt loan or nothing because bankruptcy would mean my creditors got next to nothing!

I Think its important to note I had copies of all the letters and date of correspondence, asking for help many many times. No suprise all my creditors agreed to the final short settlement. I saved thousands of pounds, I now only have my consolidation debt loan to pay back.

This process took ovcr a month during which time some of the debt collection agencies tried to get me to budge, but I held tight, so should you, you are in a stronger position than you think!

I hope you find this information useful, this site, is provided to you free and ironically (I like this bit) is partially paid for by the very same finiancial organisations I despise through the adverts on this site. A few pence each time anyone clicks on an advert. I cannot recomend that you just click on an advert to cost those companies money. But, if you want to help this site in other ways, please feel free to add a link to us from your web site or tell as many people about this site as possible.

Consolidation Loans The Outcome:

Short settlement is not perfect it is recorded on my credit file that I took out a consolidation loan for less than my total debt, but within the year I have already been offered credit and am working towards repairing my credit file, with another credit card. I have learn't my lesson this time though.